Youthful exuberance bodes well

Fearing that the game hereabouts is ageing, Australia is trying to find youngsters mature and gifted enough to chuck into the deep end. The success of the Under-19 team at the World Cup is ample proof that Australian cricket does not want to become old and crabby, writes Peter Roebuck in the Age.

Not that Australia needs to rush to promote these fellows. Performance needs to be part of the package. Arguably the selectors have been in too much of a hurry. Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes and David Warner count among players whose abilities took them ahead of their knowledge. Now they are consolidating until balance has been restored.

Hammad Azam, whose batting has been crucial to the Pakistan U-19s making it to the World Cup final, tells cricistan.com that the credit goes to the coach Ijaz Ahmed. Hammad's innings under pressure in the quarter and semi-finals were superb and reflecting on those crackerjacks he says there's hardly ever a reason to take wild slogs.

I was only thinking of one thing. I kept telling myself that regardless of whether the team wins or loses, my job was to stay there till the last ball. The team needed me and what they needed the most from me was to stay out there and not give my wicket away. In both games I knew that if I was still batting at the end of the innings then Pakistan would have won the match.